19. Firelight

TEN years together without yet a cloud,

They seek each other’s eyes at intervals

Of gratefulness to firelight and four walls

For love’s obliteration of the crowd.

Serenely and perennially endowed

And bowered as few may be, their joy recalls

No snake, no sword; and over them there falls

The blessing of what neither says aloud.

Wiser for silence, they were not so glad

Were she to read the graven tale of lines

On the wan face of one somewhere alone;

Nor were they more content could he have had

Her thoughts a moment since of one who shines

Apart, and would be hers if he had known.